3 ms·

Could this possibly be due to other environmental factors than nutrition? (i.e. epigenetics, location, lifestyle)

• Phemist 10y ago
  The absolute growth in average height? For sure. But a lot of these changes in lifestyle happened in steplock with other European countries (sweden, norway, germany) so they don't necessarily explain why we had such massive growths relative to other European countries. Epigenetics are interesting, offspring of survivors of the winter of 1944 (what we call "de hongerwinter") had a tendency towards obesity, more so than people who were born slightly before that winter. I'm not aware of any studies on height and epigenetics. Our country has always been prone to flooding, but if anything, such "evolutionary" pressures have gotten less as we developed more technology to deal with flood-prone areas.
  • lostlogin 10y ago
    There seems to be a link between obesity and a period of famine during gestation. Not sure about height though. http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2011/04/why-skinny-moms-sometimes-produce-fat-children http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2011/04/why-skinny-moms-somet...
    • Phemist 10y ago
      Yes, the study mentioned in the 2nd paragraph is the "hongerwinter" study I mentioned int he previous comment.